Sangeeta Yadav speaks to actors about how they do justice to small town stories Content is king, says kriti
It's not just about small-town films or big-town films. It is more about the content. If you make a small town film and if it doesn't have a great story, it is not going to work. Moreover, movies like Bareilly Ki Barfi has the relatability factor to the people living in small town or even the story based in a middle-class family or an urban city. Majority of the audience is in that category and those who are not, they are fascinated to know about the life of the masses. It also brings out India's culture and rootedness. It is very exciting to play characters that are not close to you and comes to a place where you are not from. You do the research and get the body language and dialect right. When you get accepted and appreciated in that role, you get a boost to take up more such challenging roles.
— Kriti Sanon
It is Real-life for khurana
70 per cent of the nation is from small town and cities and those are the people who find connect with movies like Dum lagake Haisha, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and others. I know these people in person and know their language and dealt with social issues in an entertaining way through street plays, theatre and RJ. I am equipped with both small town and big town stories. It is the real-life experience that you incorporate with everything. To do justice to the small town stories, you have to be true to the language and humour of that region and get the right mellow of the place. The issues might be the same across the States but a Bengali humour will be different from Punjabi humour or south Indian humour. During the 90s before globalisation, people aspired to go abroad to see different countries. Bollywood opened the doors of those countries in front of them through movies based in different continents that people have never been to in their life. Now is the time when India has become more exotic for us with the beauty of every region and rootedness that we have towards our culture and tradition.
— Ayushmann Khurana
Reality excites diana penty
For me, to do a typical glamourous role is a little boring because I have done that all my life as a model and actor. We live in cities all our life and sometimes we tend to not relate to what happens in small towns. Something which is so far removed from what I am aware of and familiar with is what excites me to do, especially films like lucknow Central where I played an NGO worker Gayatri Kashyap who helped the prisoners of lucknow Central to form Band of Prisoners, a story loosely inspired from on a true story. In Happy Bhag Jayegi, the story was based in Punjab and it was very challenging for me to get in that character. I had to learn about how people live in those places and what it likes to belong to a small town Punjabi family. I learnt Punjabi language and worked me with actors and theatre artists to make my role realistic.
— Diana Penty